The final day of the Pimlico 20-day Spring Meet is upon us. It was and always will be too short a Meet for my liking. Pimlico is not Saratoga. It should not pretend to be. The horse racing fans who live in the Baltimore metropolitan area should not have to drive to Laurel for live horse racing between August and the following March. Heck, Delaware Park is closer to my house in Harford County than Laurel Park. It’s time to revert back to each track having an equal number of live racing dates…or at least more balanced than the present schedule.

When handicapping the final Pimlico card, you may want to pay close attention to certain trainers as they vie for the training title. Dale Capuano leads with 9 winners and has 4 starters on the Saturday card. Scott Lake is one behind (8 winners) but only has one starter and the only other trainer who can mathematically catch Capuano is Damon Dilodovico who has 7 victories and 3 starters on the final day.

The jockey title is up in the air as Horatio Karamanos has ridden 11 winners, but does not have a mount at Pimlico on Saturday. This leaves the door wide open for Julian Pimentel and Sheldon Russell who each have 9 winners and have 6 mounts apiece to try and catch Karamanos. J.D. Acosta will have to be victorious on all four of his mounts to reach 11 wins.

Recapping Day 19 (Friday, May 21st )…at the Pimlico Spring Meet…

Best Bet Queenameina (# 6; 8th race on the turf; 8-1) stalked the early pace-setters and moved 3-wide into contention after 6 furlongs, but tired badly after entering the stretch finishing well back in 7th.

Longshot Island Trip (# 5; 3rd race on the turf; 6-1) got left at the gate and it was downhill from that point as she lolli-gagged at the back of the pack the entire 1 1/8 mile, showing absolutely no interest in competing in this one.

SHOW Parlay Play of the Day:$21 on Papa Im (# 2; 5th race on the turf; 28-1) ran like the bottom level claimer that he is, staying along the rail in last early on and only making a mild bid to finish 8th, or was it that he passed tiring horses? Probably the latter. That leaves us down to the final day without a SHOW Parlay amount to build upon.

For the Pimlico Spring Meet, Day 20, Closing Day (Saturday, May 22nd)…

Best Bet:Will Prevail (# 9; 8th race on the turf; 7-2)

This 3 year old filly makes her fourth attempt at graduating from the maiden ranks and her trainer has found the perfect spot. She has natural early speed and is bred to run on grass, which she did in her career debut at Tampa, going a mile before yielding the lead in the stretch to finish 4th by 3. The addition of blinkers and the shorter distance (5 furlongs) should result in a trip to the Winners Circle.

Longshot:Wild Man Walkin (# 6; 5th race on the turf; 12-1)

A Charlestown shipper is rarely taken serious in Maryland, but this one needs a second look. After two outstanding races to jump start this colt’s career, runner-up in debut where the winner won next out and then destroying a field of 7 by 5½ going 4½ furlongs. He’s been idle since last September but the A.M. drills indicate he’s ready to roll in his 3 year old debut. Add the fact that when the jockey and trainer here team up, they win at an incredible 44% clip.

SHOW Parlay Play of the Day:Because it is Closing Day, let’s go big and blow the remaining $41 available for the SHOW parlay on Waitinforasunnyday (# 6; 4th race; 6-1) as she appears to be rounding back into the consistent runner she once was last year. She gets in the money 80% of the time (10 = 4-1-3) going today’s distance (5½ furlongs) and has 2 wins at Pimlico in 6 tries. BTW – Her name uses the maximum number of character spaces allowed for a thoroughbred name (18).

Looks like the final racing day at Pimlico in 2010 will see the possibility of some showers late in the day, but not enough to dampen the joy of watching the 10 exciting chase scenes thoroughbred horse racing has to offer at Old Hilltop.